Giving Compass' Take:

• This conversation between experts at FiveThirtyEight explores the possibility that while we know why and how to take climate change action we may choose not to. 

• How can funders work to promote climate change action at scale? What local work can be done to begin to make a dent? 

• Learn about profitable climate change solutions. 

Chadwick Matlin: We’ve assembled to discuss the end of the world as we know it. I don’t say that to be melodramatic — the world is changing, and a new report out this week suggests just how drastic the changes will become if the world doesn’t kick its carbon addiction. The report, from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, states that between 2030 and 2052, we’re on pace to warm the atmosphere by 1.5 degrees Celsius.1 At that point — a point at which plenty of people reading this will still be alive — 14 percent of the world population will live through “severe heat waves” at least once every five years, animals and plants will experience mass disruptions to their ecosystems, and humans will incur major health and nutrition consequences.

All of that gets worse if we warm the atmosphere by 2 degrees rather than 1.5 degrees. (The New York Times has a nice visual explainer of this.) As of now, we’ll hit 2 degrees eventually — it’s just a matter of when.

Christie Aschwanden: At this point, we’ll have to pull out all the stops to stay below 2 degrees.

It’s crucial here to point out that there are economists working on this problem. Science can show us what will happen at different greenhouse gas emission scenarios, but it’s the policy experts and stakeholders who have to decide what we’re going to do about it. There are going to be tradeoffs, and that requires value judgments.

Read the full conversation between Chadwick Matlin, Christie Aschwanden, Maggie Koerth-Baker, Anna Maria Barry-Jester about climate change action at FiveThirtyEight.